This Friday the 13th should be a memorable day for all those fans of the Red Sox and the Yankees. It's the first time the two teams will meet for the new season. It is a spring training game, so the results won't really reflect badly on either side. But, if a Spring Training matchup doesn't excite true believers, the first official games of the 2009 season between these two teams will be played at Fenway Park on April 24, 25 and 26.

There have been some interesting developments during the off-season, especially on the Yankees side of the rivalry. Yankee fans may actually be too concerned with their own team this season to waste any negative energy on the Red Sox. My sources tell me that the Yankees have no third baseman at this point . Two of their starting pitchers are costing them more than all 5 of the Red Sox starters. Of course, there is always A-Rod. Bad publicity rarely encourages fans, and he has done more than his share to provide bad publicity for himself and the team. The A-Rod story involves issues like Madonna, steroids, surgery, and a less than flattering picture painted by a former manager.

There are also issues with ticket sales for their brand new stadium - across the street from their old stadium. I heard that season's tickets behind home plate are selling in the vicinity of $850,000. It would seem that maybe the whole off season has been Friday the 13th for the Yankees.

Red Sox fans may be too happy with their team so far to have any negative energy to waste on the Yankees. Red Sox fans have been happy to see players they know and love returning this year with new contracts. The Red Sox are regarded as having the best bullpen in the league. They have also been able to make some cheap deals for young players, so there is hope for the future as well. The only questions that remain may be the health of Mike Lowell, David Ortiz and J D Drew, but so far everything looks good.They could also be happy that all Red Sox tickets are going to be frozen at 2008 prices. Maybe filling up Fenway Park will not be an issue this year either.

I wonder - will happy Red Sox fans be kinder to the Yankees this season? Will Red Sox fans be a nicer group where Yankee fans are concerned? Will Red Sox fans feel sorry for the Yankees considering all of their problems? Nope.

If you haven't had enough of this rivalry yet, or if you just want to spend the next few snowy weeks reading while you wait for April, take a look at some of these books.

A-Rod : The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez by Selena Roberts
Yogi Berra : eternal Yankee by Allen Barra.
The Yankee years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
Confessions of a she-fan : the course of true love with the New York Yankees by Jane Heller.
The greatest game : the Yankees, the Red Sox, and the playoff of '78 by Richard Bradley.
Dice-K : the first season of the Red Sox $100 million man by Ian Browne ; with a foreword by Terry Francona.
Dynasty : the inside story of how the Red Sox became a baseball powerhouse by Tony Massarotti.
Red Sox rule : a season in the life of a manager by Michael Holley.
Faithful to Fenway : believing in Boston, baseball, and America's most beloved ballpark by Michael Ian Borer.
Big Papi : my story of big dreams and big hits by David Ortiz with Tony Massarotti.

I hardly knew the amazing things you can do with an iTouch. Just glide your finger over the pocket-sized screen, and everything you could possibly want is at your call: music, movies, youtube, web access -- even games to play against opponents, as a colleague showed me last night. iTouch (or iPod Touch) is a portable media player and Wi-Fi mobile platform that really brings home how far we've come since the '80s. (I've almost repressed all memory of those heavy walkman-bricks that ate my cassettes more often than not.) Once you have the touch, you'll never lose it.

The library has resources on various ipods, but iPod: The Missing Manual, by J.D. Biersdorfer, is the ticket that will introduce you to the iTouch. Also watch the Guided Tour on the Apple website.

PC Magazine loves the iTouch, and this blogger has a fine review of the pros and cons, and while I don't agree with all the cons listed (a couple of them are even inaccurate), I confess I find the fingerprint problem irritating. You can get a plastic cover to protect the glass screen, but then the cover gets smeared, and it looks messy in either case. But that's my one gripe against too many pros to count.

Some people wake up on Monday mornings complaining about a new week of work or school. To me, Monday morning is synonymous with the New York Times Metropolitan Diary column. This weekly feature collects vignettes from ordinary people about their experiences of everyday life in New York. It is an entertaining gathering of questions and observations by children through very senior citizens heard on such places as movie lines and buses, in theater lobbies, restaurants (delis in particular), health clubs, cocktail lounges, and escalators (especially at Bloomingdale's). Having debuted in 1977, the column has come to characterize city life and has become one of the paper's most popular and talked-about features--but not just among New Yorkers. In the 1990s, when the Diary was dropped from the Times' National Edition, a storm of protest rose so loudly that the newspaper made a rare about-face and reinstated it.

The column provides a taste of home for me, an exiled New Yorker. I have a thing for personal stories and observances and small histories, and in Metropolitan Diary (or "Dear Diary" as it is sometimes called), New Yorkers write to The Times to share what they've seen and heard and remembered: the profound, the peculiar, the unexpected, an ubiquitous New York moment that New Yorkers think only true New Yorkers get. But don’t we all get it?

People write short small illustrative sketches and poetry. One of my favorites is a haiku written by an L. Fred Avayzian:

This Daylight Saving
This hour gained, but empty, hushed
No one told the birds

Take a look at this week’s diary about a huge bullfrog on a train, a serenade on a train and a lost purse on a bus ride. Please let me know if one really must be a New Yorker to appreciate this column.

It's that time of year when science fiction and fantasy books, short stories, graphic novels, dramatic presentations, and more have been nominated for the two largest of the genre awards, the Hugo and the Nebula.

The Hugo Awards are nominated and voted on by members of WorldCon. A member of WorldCon is anyone who's registered to attend the next WorldCon, or someone who's paid a membership fee just to be able to vote and not attend the con. As such, the Hugos can be considered a fan award. But it's a rather expensive proposition to be able to vote, so it's definitely a subset of the fan community.

This year the Hugo nominees for Best Novel are: * Anathem by Neal Stephenson * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman * Little Brother by Cory Doctorow * Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross * Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi The Graveyard Book also just won this year's Newbery Award. You can find it and Little Brother in the Teen Room. (And don't let your age stop you from reading them! I highly recommend both.) The others can be found in the science fiction and fantasy alcoves in the back of the main floor. Here are the Hugo nominees in the other categories.

The Nebula Awards are nominated and voted on by the members of SFWA. To qualify as a member of SFWA, a writer has to meet certain professional publication requirements. This then is the award given by the pro's to their peers.

The Nebula nominees for Best Novel this year are: * Brasyl, Ian McDonald * Cauldron, Jack McDevitt * Little Brother, Cory Doctorow * Making Money, Terry Pratchett * Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin * Superpowers, David J. Schwartz Powers, and of course, Little Brother again, can be found in the Teen Room. Brasyl is in Fiction. The other two can be found in the science fiction and fantasy alcoves. You can check here for the full list of Nebula nominees, including the other categories.

Who would you vote for?

If you have been to the library recently, you may have noticed little blue and white signs inviting you to follow the library on Twitter.

What, exactly, is twitter? It's a social networking tool that allows you to send messages--a mini-blog, in a way--to a group of people who decide to follow your twitter account. The messages, called tweets, are limited to 140 characters, so they are guaranteed to be short. Some people have compared tweets to status updates in Facebook.

I've been aware of twitter for a while now, but it seems like the service has gotten a lot of press recently. A couple of weeks ago, Milwaukee Bucks Forward Charlie Villanueva was reprimanded by his coach for tweeting during halftime of his basketball game against the Celtics. The coach made it clear that he did not want it happening again. Shaquille O'Neal is another famous tweeter. The Phoenix Suns coach doesn't care if Shaq tweets during half time as long as he produces while he is on the court. Cyclist Lance Armstrong used Twitter to share updates on his collarbone injury. All of theses sports headlines have led ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning hosts to discuss it, too.

All the hype made me wonder if I should get a Twitter account. I don't want to be behind the times, but, at the same time, I don't know that I need to provide the masses with mundane updates about my life. I'm already on Facebook, and I can't always keep up with my status updates. In light of my deliberations, I was interested to read the article, "Nine Ways to Use Twitter" by John C. Dvorak. He makes a case for the usefulness of this technology. Some of his uses, such as "Twitter Witness," or "Twitness," are social. He explains, "it turns something solitary like watching TV into an interactive, shared experience." However, other uses are more practical, such as communicating with colleagues who may be off-site, polling people for information, and marketing. Nashua Public Library uses twitter as an avenue to announce events and promote our services. People who have twitter accounts can follow the library and get a "heads up" on what is happening. The Young Adult department also has an account with messages specifically for teens.

Although I don't plan to subscribe to Twitter at this time, I have a better understanding of how it can be useful. If I needed an easy way to get announcements from an organization or person or needed to broadcast quick updates (info about an ailing or distant relative or someone who is having a baby soon are examples that come to mind) to a tech-savvy group of people I would take advantage of the service.

Sources:

Associated Press. "Shaq joining in on halftime Twitter craze." ESPN. March 22, 2009.

Associated Press. "Skiles to Villanueva: No Halftime Tweets." ESPN. March 18, 2009.

Dvorak, John C. "Nine Ways to Use Twitter." PCMag.com. March 23, 2009.

Smith, Jason. "It's a Twitter World." ESPN. March 25, 2009.